A spiritual practice is considered an action that should be done daily for an extended period to attain certain benefits, blessings, or results that are beneficial to you. They exist in all traditions and have been present throughout our history. Essentially, spiritual practices are a powerful tool for self-awareness and self-discovery. The mind-ego has difficulty with them since its only focus is on the result. It starts building expectations and ideas, foreshadowing many scenarios around them; for the mind-ego, it’s a building experience of becoming something different.

In reality, your spiritual practice shows you where you are and what’s present within you. It can show you shadow aspects of yourself: frustration, shame, laziness, hubris, and so many other aspects to be seen and integrated. It’s quite a journey if you allow it to be so.

Your relationship with your body is not as personal as you believe. It has been engrained by your society, culture, ideals, beliefs, and religious perceptions. For many, the body is something to tame, to control, or to have power over. It has been considered an enemy or the center of your faulty nature; its needs, desires, and wants derailed you from your true spiritual nature. This dichotomy has been prevalent in many religious and spiritual interpretations.

When you realize the true nature of your body as the temple of your soul, it becomes clear that there is a simple essence in your sanctuary. It always holds within itself a clear indicator of what is emerging within you. It is important to see behind the veils of conditioning, expectations, and beliefs that become the jail you unconsciously have created and accepted. There is humbleness in connecting with the body, tending to it, learning from it, and eventually allowing you to connect with your eternal truth.

When connecting with the Divine or Higher Consciousness, the fear of being separate or disconnected always exists. The mind-ego experiences reality as divisive, always understanding me and the other. From this point of view, it’s easy to understand the question of whether your prayers are heard or even of any consequence. Having this doubt sustains the belief of being separate from the Divine.

In reality, we are a part of the Divine, and as a part of it, all our prayers, desires, thoughts, and wishes are always known. It is essential to realize this. The wonderful thing is that the Divine or Higher Consciousness also has higher wisdom within it. So your prayers are heard and always answered, only that this happens in a way that is impossible for the mind-ego to see since it has its ideas, expectations, and the constant need to control.

Yet, for the heart, this is an inalienable truth – and as a result, faith emerges, and you realize prayer is part of being in the natural communion with the Divine.